My big western adventure is about to begin. Between work and life, I’ve been a bit too busy to put together my normal preview post. I feel physically and mentally prepared for the race. Logistics will be a bit more challenging given I’ll be flying to a race for the first time. I think I’ll…
Long Run Fail
Well, that was ugly. I’m 3 weeks out from Bighorn so had 31 miles scheduled this morning for my longest run of this mini-cycle. Unfortunately, I only managed 26.5 miles before pulling the plug and calling it a day. This is an extremely rare event for me. If I have a distance planned, then I…
All Wet
Rain, rain, and more rain. I headed over to Cheslen Preserve to get in 25 miles this morning. The forecast was for rain all morning long and the weatherman sure nailed it. It never got to a full downpour, but it rained consistently the entire time I was out. The temperature was right around 50…
What I’m Reading Today – May 2018
Ultrarunning is still very niche and not well known, but three of the larger races in the sport have been able to percolate up to the broader masses: Western States (original 100), Badwater (135 miles in the desert), and the Barkley Marathons. The latter is run by a guy named Gary Cantrell (aka “Lazurus Lake”)…
How I Run Multiple Hundreds a Year
Running a hundred miles is hard. Running more than one a year brings different challenges. If you’ve managed to finish one race, there’s no reason you can’t do several per year as long as you’re smart about it. The following strategies are how I go about doing more than one hundred mile race per year.…
NJ Ultra Festival 100 Miler Splits
Below are my splits from the NJ Ultra. I didn’t have any targets heading into the race and pretty just ran what felt comfortable. Or as comfortable as possible. I ran fairly even splits for the first three hours until the heat started taking a toll on me. I’m a little surprised not to see…
NJ Ultra Festival 100 Miler Race Report
Warning! The NJ Ultra course/setup as currently constructed at the Princeton Blairstown Center is exceptionally challenging. I would definitely not recommend this as someone’s first 100 miler or anyone looking for an easy buckle. Here’s a short list of what makes this race so difficult: Highly technical trails. While no worse than many other races…
NJ Ultra Festival 100 Preview
. . . and then there were only five days left. It’s been eight long months since my last 100 miler and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back at it the entire time. When you wait for something for so long it’s almost surreal when the moment finally arrives. Eight months slowly…
NJ Ultra Training Update: a niggle, a 10+10 workout, and now a taper
So I’ve got a little niggle somewhere around my left knee. I say somewhere because it’s not a consistent thing. It showed up two weeks ago after a spectacular 25 mile long run. I ended up doing too much (i.e. lunges) the day after and my knee just felt weak. The tendon/ligament/muscle/whatever just inside the…
Caught a 10K
No, didn’t hit my big 10K target (finishing a hundred 100s), however I did reach a little one this morning – namely 10,000 miles running. Or more specifically, 10k miles in my training log which dates to August 2012. I ran track for a couple years back in high school and “trained” for several 5ks/mud…